No army operation in Tirah Valley, if there was one, it would be officially announced, says Ahmed Chaudhry
Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, has dismissed reports of any Pakistani-American understanding of drone operations in Afghanistan, calling them “completely baseless.”
“Pakistan has no agreement with the US and no formal complaint about drones has been received from the Taliban regime,” Lt. Chaudhry said while talking to senior journalists on Monday.
He added that the Ministry of Information had repeatedly clarified the matter. “There is no arrangement whatsoever under which drones operate from Pakistan to Afghanistan,” DG ISPR stressed.
Lt. Chaudhry accused the Taliban regime of facilitating terrorists and said Pakistan had made it clear to the Taliban during the Istanbul talks that it was their responsibility to control terrorism and explained how they would do it.
“These were our people – when we launched operations against them, they fled to Afghanistan. Hand them over to us and we will deal with them under the constitution and the law,” he said.
DG ISPR said the real challenge lies in the nexus of terrorists, criminal networks and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He claimed that these groups are involved in opium cultivation and earn between Rs1.8 million and Rs2.5 million per hectare, a trade that draws in local populations and warlords. He added that the proceeds are shared between the Afghan Taliban, the TTP and regional warlords.
